


Quantum Physics and Shadow Cats

by wabbitseason



Category: Doctor Who, X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Community: fandom_stocking, Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-02
Updated: 2009-12-02
Packaged: 2017-10-18 08:52:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/187119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wabbitseason/pseuds/wabbitseason
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor was having a nice quiet day until some girl in a brown and blue hoodie came straight through the TARDIS' side wall and set off every proximity alarm in the place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Quantum Physics and Shadow Cats

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mara](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mara/gifts).



> Written for [](http://marag.livejournal.com/profile)[**marag**](http://marag.livejournal.com/) for [](http://fandom-stocking.livejournal.com/profile)[**fandom_stocking**](http://fandom-stocking.livejournal.com/). She likes wacky crossover and this is arguably one of the wackiest I've come up with. And I blame Eureka for the last part.

The Doctor was having some quiet time. He wasn't running around or saving the world from some earth-shattering cataclysm. That was quiet by his standards. The TARDIS was parked in some unobtrusive alley where no one would disturb him. He had a pot of tea bubbling on the stove. He had an Agatha Christie book he hadn't read in an age. All was well.

Until some girl in a brown and blue hoodie came straight through the TARDIS' side wall and set off every proximity alarm in the place. Needless to say, the Doctor was not happy at all.

\---  
"What, what what?" The Doctor scampered to his feet, throwing switches to silence the TARDIS' alarms. "Who are you and how did you get into my TARDIS?"

"Your what?" The hoodie girl asked confused. "I am really sorry, sir. I was just trying to get away... get out of the weather, so I hid in the nearest place available. As soon as the storm clears out, I'll leave, okay?"

The hoodie girl was lying outright. For once, the weather was clear outside. But his  
instruments did show some mammoth robot mucking about outside. Could it have been after her? If so, the girl picked a good place to hide. The TARDIS blocked the robot's sensors from detecting them. But who on Earth would design a purple robot to go after innocent girls? Pink maybe, but not purple. "You didn't even use the front door!" He was still puzzled how she had appeared through the side wall. Judging by how nearly she'd slammed into the control room apparatus, she must have been running pretty fast.

"Oh, that," The girl looked faintly embarrassed, like she had been caught eating with her fingers or some other human bad habit. "I know I shouldn't have just gone through the wall, but like I said, I was in a hurry and..."

"Who are you?" The Doctor cut off her explanations. "You look human enough."

"I am human!" The girl said defensively. "My name is Katherine Pryde."

"If you can pass through a wall, you're a little more than human, Katherine."

"Says the man who looks human but lives in a blue police box with really weird spatial issues," Katherine frowned. "Who are you again?"

"Yes, yes, bigger on the inside," the Doctor sighed. "I'm called the Doctor." Why was that always what people noticed first? To her credit, she'd taken a bit longer to be shocked than most. Had she seen something similar before? "How does an American know what a police box looks like anyway?"

"I lived in Britain for awhile. They were still around in some of the older neighborhoods, forgotten mostly," Katherine pushed a long lock of dark hair out of her face. "So I'm guessing your TARDIS is some sort of transdimensional vehicle?" She was reading some of his instrument panels. "That's the most I can make from the equations and schematics. I knew I should have paid more attention in Dr. McCoy's quantum mechanics seminar."

"Did you say McCoy?" The Doctor asked stunned. "The famed biochemist?"

"Yes, he was one of my teachers at Xaviers," Katherine continued. "Perhaps I should be going…"

That explained things considerably. Xaviers Institute for Higher Learning taught mutants. The big giant robot stomping around outside was a Sentinel, designed to track down and kill homo superiors or mutants. The Doctor had never seen one up close. He didn't know how the Sentinel would react to his Gallifreyan physiology and now had no desire to find out for himself.

"Out there in that horrible weather?" The Doctor said. "Oh, I think not." He suggested. "Why don't you stay a bit? You can join me in a spot of tea and wait out your storm." There was no reason to alarm the poor girl. She hadn't volunteered any information on her predicament. Humans could be so suspicious of strangers and aliens. "Or I could take you somewhere. No one will find you."

"Take me somewhere?" Katherine asked. "What do you mean? This thing actually works?"

"Oye, I know she looks old, but she still has feelings," the Doctor patted the control panel. "Just one trip, I can take you wherever you want. I can show you stars and galaxies." But somehow he had a feeling she'd seen her share of both and found them either uninspiring or terrifying. "Or maybe a pop back in time and see someone you've always admired? There has to be someone."

"There was this one person I've been reading about," Katherine admitted.

"What was their name?" The Doctor expected to hear Madam Curie or maybe Albert Einstein. This girl screamed science and engineering. He half expected to go off for tea and find her taking apart the TARDIS to understand how it worked.

"Lisa Meitner," Katherine said. "She was a physicist."

"You want to know why she wouldn't work on the atom bomb," the Doctor said.

"No, I wanted to know what it was like to be a woman scientist back then," Katherine admitted. "Reading about her made appreciate the opportunities I've had. She escaped from persecution. Yet she still found ways to do her research and stick to her guns philosophically."

"Lise's going to love meeting you," the Doctor grinned.

Katherine asked. "How did you know that?"

"Just a feeling, Kitty Pryde," the Doctor said. "You, dear girl, you're going to astonish people someday."

Before Kitty could ask him how he knew her nickname, the Doctor was flying around the TARDIS control room, twisting knobs and dials and throwing back levers, until the TARDIS winked out of time and space. Hopefully the Doctor would have her back before this world needed her. Of course it might be useful to have someone that could walk through walls.  



End file.
